By Tom Harle at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium 

Guildford rower Ollie Wynne-Griffith labelled the Olympic Village ‘mental’ and is pleased not to be staying there.

Not all Team GB athletes lodge in the Village, with outlying venues like the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium which is 30km east of the city centre, using hotels and other accommodation. 

The Village is a vibrant environment but not without its issues, with GB flying in an extra chef to prepare food after issuing complaints about the offerings in official canteens.

“We visited the village the other day and it was absolutely mental. We all were there and thought ‘I wish we were in the village’ and then about an hour later you are like ‘I’m quite glad we are not in the village.’” said Wynne-Griffith. 

“The atmosphere is a lot calmer, the Covid bits not having that to worry about has been really nice.”

Wynne-Griffith is going for gold in Paris in the men’s pair alongside childhood friend Tom George. 

When the duo first took to the water in the heats, they were given a scare by Germany who took an early lead but held their nerve to ease past them and into Wednesday’s semi-finals. 

“We could probably be a bit sharper out of the blocks,” admitted Wynne-Griffith. “For us, we want to be dominant at every point in the race and we probably didn’t do that today out of the blocks. Little bits in the last 500 that we didn’t have to do today but it’s nice to go through those steps and those processes.

“I think if you cross the line first in the Olympic Games there's got to be a certain sense of you've done the job.”

Wynne-Griffith is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games. 

There was a shock in the first round as Swiss world champions Andrin Gulich and Roman Roeoesli failed to escape from their heat. 

The Swiss led the opening heat at the halfway mark but were gunned down by crews from Spain, New Zealand, and Ireland, meaning they will have to race once more than their rivals in tomorrow’s repechage.

Top dogs in the other heat were Croatia’s Sinkovic brothers, Valent, and Martin, who have two Olympic titles to their name in different events and recently switched back from the double to the pair.

It is George and Wynne-Griffith, however, who arrive as favourites having swept away the field at May’s European Championships.

“We have known each other a long time and worked together a lot in various boats,” said George. “This season we have worked really hard on being a bit more internal and just having a really solid race plan. Ollie makes the calls but we both know what we want to do at what point. When the call comes we are both ready to go.”

With more than £30M a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport.  To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk